As is well known in the art, an electric vehicle utilizes electric energy stored in a battery for a power source. For enhancement of energy efficiency and mileage of such an electric vehicle, braking of the electric vehicle is usually controlled by a regenerative braking scheme such that some energy may be retrieved to electric energy during the braking.
An electric vehicle is usually provided with an automatic transmission or a continuously variable transmission (CVT). However, when a manual transmission is installed in an electric vehicle, a driver will manually operate a clutch, and accordingly, the driver will become more sensitive to changes in vehicle behavior caused by activation of regenerative braking. Therefore, an electric vehicle equipped with a manual transmission should be more precisely controlled in regenerative braking.
Furthermore, a powertrain of a four wheel drive scheme that is able to apply a driving force to both front and rear wheels has various intrinsic merits. An electric vehicle will also have such merits when a powertrain of the electric vehicle is provided in a four wheel drive scheme. When a manual transmission is provided in an electric vehicle along with a powertrain of a four wheel drive scheme, applicability of regenerative braking to front and rear wheels is substantially dependent on whether a driver operates the clutch.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.